Details

Date

1877

Author

Burrill

Contribution

Reported micro-organisms as possible agents of disease in plants.

Reference

Doetsch

Notes

Thomas J. Burrill. The presence of bacteria in root nodules of leguminous plants had been noted since 1858, but these had been (would be?) shown to be beneficial. Burrill's work appeared in a number of papers in the following years, and was focused on blight of fruit trees. He described "very minute moving particles" in diseased tissue, and noted their similarity to the spores of other (non-parasitic) fungi. See Burrill entry for 1879.